5 differences with Sean Desai as Chicago Bears defensive coordinator

2. Blitzing Less

This may have to do with all of the stunts he is running, but Sean Desai is relying on his front four to get home. Often when you do stunt it is hard to blitz on top of that because the lineman are moving around so much. Still, Desai has been one of the lowest blitzing coordinators in the NFL.

The Bears have never been a heavy blitz team, at least not since Khalil Mack was added. Still, Desai took it to a new low. In 2018, Vic Fangio blitzed 20.3% of the time. In 2019, Chuck Pagano came in and blitzed 23.5% of the time. He cooled back a bit, and blitzed 21.5% of the time in 2020.

However, now we have Sean Desai who currently has a blitz rate of 16.2%. That is 4.1% lower than any rate the Bears have had as a Matt Nagy team. To be fair, it has had it’s ups and downs. When you stunt, and do not blitz with Mack, and he gets home, you look great. When Mack is not there, and you do not get home fast enough, the Steelers and 49ers can carve you up with the extra time. Either way, it would appear as though Desai is not going to skew blitz heavy.